by Glen Gibbs Peak Sports A depleted bench of dedicated Powell River soccer players made the trip to Victoria on the long weekend and were rewarded with a big 2-0 win over Bays United FC.
“All they needed was a good bench coach,” chuckled Villa’s manager Todd Phillips who stepped in for coach Jamie Zroback. “That’s what I’m telling Jamie anyways.”
Zroback was one of several team members who stayed home for Thanksgiving weekend.
Ten players took the ferry Saturday evening, spent the night in Nanaimo and left early Sunday morning to join three other team members for a match at noon.
Included in the roster were two keepers so one of them, Doug Rivera, started as a striker while Matt Liknes patrolled the goal.
“Doug is a big boy,” said Phillips of the decision, “and if he lays a shoulder into you then he’s going to knock you over. He’s a bit intimidating.”
The game started off fairly balanced between the two clubs with the advantage occasionally tipping in favour of Villa.
On one of those occasions Villa opened the scoring when Kye Taylor dished the ball to Rivera who knocked it over to Brandon Knox who then deked his man and calmly slid the ball into the corner of the net.
The goal, at 27 minutes, was the kind of smooth passing play that has been absent from Villa’s game of late and it boosted the confidence of the team.
Villa’s second goal came at the 35-minute mark and was the result of a long free kick into the 18-yard box.
Scott Hobson sent the ball in and in the ensuing scramble Knox got his head on the ball and steered it over to Taylor who, from the far post, used his head to score the insurance goal.
“The message was to keep the intensity up and don’t change the game plan,” reported Phillips. “Basically, that we still had 45 minutes of soccer to play and that we were only up 2-0 and if we went out and slacked off then just one goal and they’re back in the game.”
The strategy was holding up for Villa until the 75th minute when Hobson received a red card which put the team down to 10 men for the remaining 15 minutes.
Both sides had upped their physical play but Hobson tackled his man a little too hard and in the heat of the moment, after his yellow card, gave the player another shot as he walked by.
“We need to show a bit more composure in that situation,” said Phillips, but the damage was done.
Fortunately, Liknes was very sharp in this game and he, with the extra effort of his teammates, was able to hold off the charging Bays United.
“Kye moved from centre mid back to sweeper,” said Phillips, “but the key was that Matt (Liknes) was definitely deserving of his shutout. I counted seven game savers...he was making saves that not many keepers would have made.”
His performance, the successful return of Taylor and the well earned shutout have certainly buoyed the spirits of Powell River.
“A long weekend, shorthanded and to pull it off,” said Phillips, “makes our season look a lot better now.”
The win moves Villa from the bottom of the division to the middle of the pack but more than that helped to erase the early disappointment of the first few games in the schedule.
Villa will try to stay on a winning note at 4 pm on Saturday, October 15 when it plays Lakehill FC2 in Victoria.
